Running from May 27 to June 12, Festival TransAmériques (FTA) brings theatre and dance from a dozen countries to a host of venues around Montreal. Here are some of the best bets, selected by critics J. Kelly Nestruck (theatre) and Paula Citron (dance).
THEATRE
Roman Tragedies
- Toneelgroep Amsterdam (Amsterdam)
- May 28-30
Director Ivo van Hove's modern-dress mash-up of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra lasts six hours straight, features live video feeds and an onstage bar you can visit throughout. But what European critics have saved their raves for are the performances by this Dutch repertory theatre's acting company. Wrote The Independent's Michael Coveney in his five-star review: "It made you want to go straight on to Amsterdam and catch the rest of their repertoire."
The Greatest Cities in the World
- Theatre Replacement (Vancouver)
- June 9-11
The FTA continues its love affair with Vancouver's Theatre Replacement, after presenting the creative company's Bioboxes and WeeTube last year. Artistic directors Maiko Bae Yamamoto and James Long and 11 collaborators visited London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Moscow and a number of other small towns in Tennessee named after great cities to create this documentary "smash-up of voices, movement and media."
Littoral + Incendie + Forêts: Le Sang des Promesses
- Au Carré de l'Hypoténuse + Abé Carré Cé Carré (Paris and Montreal)
- June 6
Montreal's Wajdi Mouawad, artistic director of the National Arts Centre's French Theatre, stages his own acclaimed trilogy of tragic odysseys in an 11-hour marathon that lasts from noon until midnight. In these three lyrical works, Mouawad's young-adult protagonists - Wilfrid in Littoral, Jeanne and Simon in Incendies and Loup in Forêts - reluctantly seek out the truth about their personal histories and find them steeped in violent conflicts and full of shocking secrets.
DANCE
Nearly 90 (squared)
- Merce Cunningham Company (New York)
- May 27-28
When the iconic Cunningham died last July at age 90, he had just completed this work. The roots of Cunningham go back to Martha Graham's modern dance company; he was a soloist in it from 1939 to 1945. Since founding his own company in 1953, Cunningham was always in the vanguard, embracing new technology like computer imagery. In his later years, he experimented with dance as science and mathematics, creating pattern works of endless fascination.
Poussières de sang
- Compagnie Salia ni Seydou (Ouagadougou, Burkino Faso)
- June 5-7
Choreographers Salia Sanou and Seydou Boro were inspired by two days of armed conflict in Ouagadougou. Using live music that embraces both traditional African and European instruments, the voice of the angry singer propels this dance of protest and revolt. Driven by fierce pulsing rhythms, the seven dancers rage against the violence that is destroying Africa. Beneath the force and power, however, is the call for peace and a desire for liberation.
Children + A Few Minutes of Lock
- Fou glorieux - Louise Lecavalier (Montreal)
- June 9-11
The great dancer Louise Lecavalier helped establish Édouard Lock's La La La Human Steps as an international sensation. One of these pieces has Lecavalier going back to Lock's uber-athletic choreography with her much older body - a risky experiment performed with Elijah Brown. The new work Children was created with Nigel Charnock of Britain's provocative DV8 Physical Theatre. Performed with Patrick Lamothe, the choreography presents the heaven and hell of a couple on the brink of a nasty break-up.
For further information, www.fta.qc.ca.